As I unfolded my copy of Wednesday Comics #1, I was greeted
by a banner that proudly proclaimed: "The World's Greatest Heroes! The
World's Greatest Comics!" And you know something? I think DC Comics is
well on their way towards delivering on that promise.

In many ways, Wednesday Comics is nothing less than a
political statement, a manifesto correcting what some would argue the
coarsening of an industry. With the success of Secret Wars all the way through Blackest Night,
comic book companies have known that the Event has been their bread and
butter. And while I think these events have their place -- Dark Reign
and Batman Reborn being two such lines that I've really enjoyed -- Mark
Chiarello has, in his way, assembled the greatest defense of the
non-Event comic in recent memory.

The premise is simple, but one that is too often overlooked in the
daily bustle for content: Chiarello has brought together the best and
the brightest to not worry about continuity or future story arcs, but
to simply do what comes natural -- art. With Wednesday Comics, he has
taken the oversized format and used it as a banner, as a flag for
anyone reading in a subway, a restaurant, or a public park -- it
proclaims loud and proud that yes, these are comics, and that they
should be ubiquitous in American life.

It's this enthusiasm that bleeds through the entire enterprise. By working in an anthology-style format, Wednesday Comics
has something for every type of sensibility, whether it be the
classical realism of Lee Bremejo's Superman, the anime-style energy of
Sean “Cheeks” Galloway's Teen Titans, or the jagged indie feel of Paul
Pope's Adam Strange. As I mentioned before, this project is really a
means of showcasing great art and great characters, and in that regard
the writers in this project have really bent over backwards to
accommodate for their visual counterparts.

But does the single page format work? Almost uniformly so. Perhaps my
favorite comic of the bunch was Karl Kerschl and Brandon Fletcher's The
Flash, which really maximizes the oversized format, utilizing a number
of panels to tell not one, but two stories -- an action tale of Barry
Allen, and a soap operatic story of Iris West -- without hurting the
clarity or pacing of the images. Paul Pope, meanwhile, gives a great,
crazy tone to Adam Strange, as giant blue aliens attack the
Escher-esque City of Ranagar. "Great Scott!!" Adam says. "Why, they
resemble nothing less than the Mandriullus Sphynx Monkey of the family
Cercopithecidae... only huge, blue-furred, and operating strange flying
machines. The sight would be patently absurd if it wasn't so horrible!"
Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck's
Deadman features, as they really designed a fantastic origin recap with
a distinct voice for Boston Brand, which was only improved by the
strong reds, whites, and greens of colorist Dave Stewart.

Other comics, meanwhile, open with more of a spotlight on the artist,
rather than the story. Jimmy Palmiotti's Supergirl, for example, puts
the impetus on Amanda Conner, whose Giffen-esque style really charms
the pants off a reader, whether it be Krypto the Super-Dog, Streaky the
Super-Cat, or Supergirl herself chasing angrily after them. "Want
that!" A little girl points after them. Me, too. Meanwhile, former Teen
Titans editor Eddie Berganza and Spectacular Spider-Man character
designer Sean Galloway take the first page of their issue to really
show off the history of the group, as well as to hint at the
motivations of new villain Trident (with a well-timed "The End"
finishing it all off). Mike Allred, meanwhile, does a great balancing
act with Neil Gaiman on Metamorpho, one of the strongest pieces in the
book, as he manages to make Rex's shapeshifting as fluid and seemingly
effortless as he makes Sapphire beautiful.

Now, this isn't a perfect opener by any means, as certain stories felt
a little slow in the opening. Joe Quinones looks like he'll draw the
heck out of Green Lantern, but Kurt Busiek only scripting the lead
character in the last panel of the page seemed like a bit of a misstep.
Meanwhile, Ben Caldwell does some great experimental work with his
colors in Wonder Woman, but the sheer number of panels makes following
his smooth artwork -- not to mention the story -- fairly difficult.
However, in a book with this many irons in the fire, DC can get away
with some of these stories starting a slow burn, especially in the name
of sequential art experimentation.

With some breathtaking art and with some other stories -- such as Kyle
Baker's cinematic Hawkman and Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook's epic Kamandi
-- looking like they will soon explode off the page in the coming
weeks, DC and Mark Chiarello have really done a great thing for this
industry. While it remains to be seen if the series will continue to
improve or struggle under the weight of its own ambitions, based on the
first issue of this groundbreaking series, I only wish that every day
could be like Wednesday.